January 16, 2007Scrapbooking has become quite a phenomenon in recent years, it gains momentum year after year. The rationale for scrapbooking differs among individuals, though many people scrapbook for common reasons also! I'm certain that I am not the only one who realizes how short life is and how precious the memories are that make up our lives. My memories seem to fade far to quickly as the years race toward the winter season of my life. For this reason capturing memories has become a passion of mine. Every aspect of collecting memories and finding new ways to document them. This task truly invigorates me. One thing I like more than this is to be able to share with you what I have learned and will continue to learn.
We see scrapbooking then is recording candid memories, to enable us to remember the early years and the important events of our lives, the blessed people we have loved, words we have spoken even some we have regretted, ideas someone else has shared with us, places we have called home, a photo of our favorite comfort food – possibly with a recipe, it might be a handwritten note from a mother with some final thoughts before she met her Lord, possibly a photo of the wagon your grandfather sold to have money enough to marry his girl, a photo of a grandmother riding with a friend on a Sunday afternoon, pencil rubbings of the names on a tombstone of a loved one, a lock of hair from your little princess after her first haircut, currency from Venice after you vacationed their, or quite possibly photos from a trip to the local pumpkin patch with two of your favorite boys and the hay ride you shared, or countless other examples of everyday life!
Scrapbooking uses more than just the snapshots from the photo album or the box of old pictures stored in the closet, to remember everyday moments in your lives. It uses trinkets collected on a trip, or words you scratched on a napkin while dining with a loved one, a poem a dear friend wrote to tell you how special you are, it might include the first words spoken from the littlest ones in you lives, words to a song that played on the radio during your first date, or how that first kiss made you feel. You might journal your thoughts about current events or political views through the years.
Arguably, the most important reason to scrapbook is to share with others your life in a way that none other can compare, a scrapbook is not bound by time, it can be passed on for generations. Imagine receiving a scrapbook on your wedding day of your husband to be, with snippets of his life preserved just for you, it includes pictures of him splashing in a puddle, some of him chasing his sister with a garter snake, possibly one of him falling asleep in his cake on his first birthday. You find in a pocket on one of the pages of the scrapbook a DVD with videos of him dancing foolishly about the house, one of him crying over spilled milk, you see him in his first high school musical. What bride wouldn't love to receive one of these. Now imagine for a moment that you received an album from your great grandmother, which included love letters from her husband while they were separated because of war. Your great grandmother recorded glimpses of everyday life while she struggled to keep up the farm, and care for your grandfather, then in diapers. Think for a moment paging through such treasures, touching the pages your grandmother touched, one whom you had never met. You read her thoughts she jotted down on paper, you have in part experienced her life. You have connected in a way that no other means could have afforded.
I want to encourage you to scrapbook the everyday moments as well as the special occasions. Life is mostly filled mostly with ordinary days, with special ones sprinkled in. A life story is not complete without telling the ordinary and the extrodinary. Journal your thoughts and ideas, your political views your fashion frenzies. The more of "YOU" in your pages, the better.
Scrapbook all aspects of your life. Your pets, your hobbies, your family and friends.
